Iryna Sysoyenko: “The priority of the authorities is not the improvement of people’s health, but the punitive functions of the state”

16.11.2017

Speaking about the representation of the medical industry in the draft state budget for 2018, adopted by the parliament in the first reading, Iryna Sysoyenko – Samopomich MP, deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Health – notes that the funds allocated for medicine are not enough either for salaries of doctors or for the development of healthcare.

First of all, once again nothing at all is provisioned for the program of emergency medical care development. “At the same time,” she stresses, “60-70% of car fleet all over Ukraine is worn-out, while many regions are not provided with ambulances even by 50%. If an ambulance comes on time, and doctors in the car have the necessary medical equipment and necessary medicines, they manage to save people’s lives after strokes, heart attacks, and traumas. Because so far, according to statistics, 70% of citizens die at the pre-hospital stage.”

Secondly, the medical subvention, envisaged for salaries of doctors, is again under-funded in the budget. Already this year the government debt to the industry workers is almost 4 billion hryvnias, so it is important that in 2018 addition funds are allocated.

The MP also insists that the government has to increase the medical tariff levels, because without this, nurse, hospital aid, doctors, and security guards receive almost the same salary.

Thirdly, there is a shortage of 1 billion hryvnias for primary medical care: “The Ministry of Finance has told everyone that there would be 375 hryvnia per person, but this money is not there.”

The MP emphasizes that as a result of such a policy the government risks to deprive Ukraine of the best medical workers and to deprive people of the right to quality and affordable medicine.

“This is some kind of anti-human position on medicine. More and more doctor will quit their jobs, will go abroad, or will work not in their specialty. Our citizens will not be able to receive quality and affordable medical care, and mortality rate in the state will grow at a frantic pace. I really hope that the Prime Minister and the government will make appropriate changes by the time of the second reading,” concludes Iryna Sysoyenko.